Eli5 why do military planes fly in a formation

Question

Does it have specific tactical advantages or is it just cool?

Edit to add: what about specific types of formations, like a Flying V vs a Diamond vs whatever else they can do?

In: 797

Answer 1

Everyone is wrong. Fighter jets flying close together is so that they appear as one, or at least as a smaller number to any radar that could pick them up. It would be detrimental in a fight to be so close together. You notice helicopters tend to fly much looser formations, this is because helicopters have such a massive radar cross section and fly so close to the enemy that it wouldn’t make a difference, the radar would still be able to differentiate.